(Press-News.org) Women who have a fear of childbirth spend longer in labour than women who have no such fear, suggests new research published today (27 June) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Between 5 and 20% of pregnant women have a fear of childbirth. Various factors have been associated with increased prevalence of fear of childbirth, including young maternal age, being a first-time mother, pre-existing psychological problems, lack of social support and a history of abuse or adverse obstetric events.
This Norwegian study looked at 2206 women with a singleton pregnancy who intended to deliver vaginally.
Fear of childbirth was assessed by the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ), a validated psychometric instrument designed to measure fear of childbirth. Women undertook the questionnaire at 32 weeks gestation and fear of childbirth was defined as a score of more than 85. Out of the total number, 165 (7.5%) women scored more than 85.
Labour duration was defined as 3-4 centimetres cervical dilatation and 3 uterine contractions per 10 minutes, until delivery of the child.
The average age of the participants at delivery was 30.9 years and 50.5% (1113 women) were first time mothers. Average labour duration was 8.22 hours for first-time mothers, and it was 4.91 hours for parous women.
The researchers found that women with a fear of childbirth spent one hour and 32 minutes longer in labour than women with no such fear. After adjustment for other factors associated with labour duration, such as parity, epidural analgesia, instrumental vaginal delivery and labour induction, the difference was still significant at 47 minutes.
Average labour duration was 8 hours for women with fear of childbirth compared to 6.46 hours (which equals 6 hours and 28 minutes) for women without fear.
The study also found that women with fear of childbirth more often delivered by instrumental vaginal delivery (17.0% versus 10.6%) or emergency caesarean delivery (10.9% versus 6.8%) as compared to women without fear of childbirth.
In total, 25.5% (42 women) of women with fear of childbirth and 44.4% (906 women) of women without fear of childbirth had a vaginal delivery without any obstetric interventions.
However, despite increased labour duration for women with a fear of childbirth, a large proportion of women achieved a vaginal delivery which was their intention compared to women with no fear (89.1% versus 93.2%).
Samantha Salvesen Adams, Health Services Research Centre, Akershus University Hospital, University of Oslo, Norway and co-author of the research said:
"Fear of childbirth seems to be an increasingly important issue in obstetric care. Our finding of longer duration of labour in women who fear childbirth is a new piece in the puzzle within this intersection between psychology and obstetrics.
"We found a link between fear of childbirth and longer duration of labour. Generally, longer labour duration increases the risk of instrumental vaginal delivery and emergency caesarean section. However, it is important to note that a large proportion of women with a fear of childbirth successfully had a vaginal delivery and therefore elective caesarean delivery should not be routinely recommended."
John Thorp, BJOG Deputy-Editor-in-Chief added:
"There are a number of reasons why women may develop a fear of childbirth. This research shows that women with fear of childbirth are more likely to need obstetric intervention and this needs to be explored further so that obstetricians and midwives can provide the appropriate support and advice."
INFORMATION: END
Women who regularly eat a low carbohydrate, high protein diet are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease and stroke) than those who do not, a study published on bmj.com today suggests.
Although the actual numbers are small (an extra 4-5 cases of cardiovascular disease per 10,000 women per year) the authors say that this is a 28% increase in the number of cases and that these results are worrying in a population of young women who may be exposed to these dietary patterns and face the excess risk for many years.
Low carbohydrate-high protein ...
Teaching new mums about healthy eating and active play can help cut the risk of their child being overweight or obese, a study published today on bmj.com finds.
Childhood obesity is a serious health challenge affecting more than 43 million preschool children worldwide (6.7%) with studies showing it could have adverse effects on later health. Preschool children who are obese or overweight have a high chance of carrying this into adulthood and it has been argued that efforts to prevent this should start earlier in life. Methods of feeding children, when they start eating ...
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- You could say that the odds of seeing it were astronomical.
Yet there it was, 10 billion light-years from Earth, the most massive galaxy cluster ever seen at such a distance – with a gravity field so strong that it distorted the light of the galaxy behind it in a rare display called gravitational lensing.
"When I first saw it, I kept staring at it, thinking it would go away," said University of Florida astronomer Anthony Gonzalez, lead author of the study announcing the discovery. "The galaxy behind the cluster is a typical run-of-the-mill galaxy ...
Chevy Chase, MD— In a Statement of Principles unveiled today, The Endocrine Society proposes a streamlined definition for endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and offers recommendations that will strengthen the ability of current screening programs to identify EDCs.
An endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) is a chemical or mixture of chemicals in the environment, that can interfere with any aspect of hormone action. The Endocrine Society's Scientific Statement published in 2009 provided an exhaustive summary of the scientific background that justifies concern for the effects ...
A multicenter trial showed that nearly half of young patients with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma can be cured without undergoing either irradiation or intensive chemotherapy that would leave them at risk for second cancers, infertility, heart and other problems later.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators led this multi-institution study, which focused on pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma patients without widespread disease or symptoms such as weight loss, fever and night sweats. The findings will likely spur efforts to identify patients with even more advanced ...
A lifestyle that features fresh foods and limited use of products likely to contain environmental chemicals has been shown to reduce exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), such as BPA and phthalates, in a small population study. EDCs are linked to a number of adverse health complications including neuro-developmental delays, behavioral issues and fertility problems. They are produced by the millions of pounds per year and found extensively in a range of products that contain certain plastics.
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and University of ...
UCLA researchers discovered that a diet enriched with a popular omega-3 fatty acid and an ingredient of curry spice preserved walking ability in rats with spinal-cord injury. Published June 26 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, the findings suggest that these dietary supplements help repair nerve cells and maintain neurological function after degenerative damage to the neck.
"Normal aging often narrows the spinal canal, putting pressure on the spinal cord and injuring tissue," explained principal investigator Dr. Langston Holly, associate professor of neurosurgery ...
A new video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, describes a novel procedure to monitor brain function and aid in functional mapping of patients with diseases such as epilepsy. This procedure illustrates the use of pre-placed electrodes for cortical mapping in the brains of patients who are undergoing surgery to minimize the frequency of seizures. This technique, while invasive, provides real-time analysis of brain function at a much higher resolution than current technologies.
Typically, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography ...
June 26, 2012 – The promise of ultrafast quantum computing has moved a step closer to reality with a technique to create rewritable computer chips using a beam of light. Researchers from The City College of New York (CCNY) and the University of California Berkeley (UCB) used light to control the spin of an atom's nucleus in order to encode information.
The technique could pave the way for quantum computing, a long-sought leap forward toward computers with processing speeds many times faster than today's. The group will publish their results on June 26 in Nature Communications. ...
PASADENA, Calif.—Imagine if doctors could perform surgery without ever having to cut through your skin. Or if they could diagnose cancer by seeing tumors inside the body with a procedure that is as simple as an ultrasound. Thanks to a technique developed by engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), all of that may be possible in the not-so-distant future.
The new method enables researchers to focus light efficiently inside biological tissue. While the previous limit for how deep light could be focused was only about one millimeter, the Caltech team ...
